NBA My Career Tips

Patience. Stamina. Commitment. Selflessness. All traits you’ll need to make it in the NBA. Do you have what it takes?

NBA 2K14 returns for another round of My Player goodness, throwing you straight in the deep end from the lowest ebb of basketball greatness as you work your way through the ranks, to All-Star weekend, the MVP and then, hopefully, an NBA Championship.

Most importantly, it’s integral you acknowledge that your created player is you: everything the player does and says is at your feet. Did he fall in draft? It’s your fault. Did his preferred team skip over him? You obviously didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. Are your followers falling off in droves? You might want to ramp up the interaction.

Stuck in a rut? Here are some tips to help you work your way up to NBA greatness.

What Are Sort Of Player You? Choose Wisely

When you’re starting out creating your player, you’ll notice there are a few different “play styles”, which will adversely affect what sort of player you end up becoming. This is important: determining whether your player will be an offensive or defensive star, or maybe someone a little more well-rounded, will shape how your teammates react and rate you during the game.

For example, say you create a point guard with the intention of being a good team player and passer. Choosing the distributor play style will make the player a more efficient passer (and make it easier to head down this path). Choosing a player that is “athletic” will give you more flexibility to shape the player over a long period, which is certainly ideal, but you’ll need to be balanced across more facets, rather than refined in one specific area. Creating a center as a post-up guy is going to make him a beast in the post, or alternatively, you could choose for him to be a defensive warrior that will make him the definitive blocker and rebounder.

Author version: Determine whether you want to be offensive, defensive or an all-rounder, and choose a play style suited to that.

First Impressions Last: Don’t Fall In The Draft

The Rookie Showcase is your first opportunity to showcase your player’s talents. It’s here that simple mistakes and poor decisions will influence your place in the draft: end up with a bad rating and you’ll fall, end up being drafted by a team with a good record, and be destined to sit it out on the bench while you work your way up the ranks.

You can make it considerably easier for yourself by playing conservatively in the Showcase: stick to what you know as a player, and don’t try to force your player to do things that would otherwise lead to a turnover in a normal match outside of the My Career mode.

Silly things like cross-court passes forced one-on-one isolation, poor steal attempts and lazy passing won’t sit well with recruiters. Only make passes with a high probability of being made, and try not to force your shots: an open shot, even if missed, will still help your game rating increase. Don’t force your shots.

Author version: Play conservatively and smart in the Rookie Showcase.

Interview Like A Pro

Now when I say “Pro”, I mean relative to the interests of your player. After the Rookie Showcase, your player will generally receive the interest of three teams. The trick here is to either shape your responses relative to the team you want to be drafted to, or make all three teams fight over you. The former is probably better, as you can pick your favorite team, or choose to respond respectfully (ie. tell them what they want to hear) to the team with the higher draft choice.

This, however, can also backfire. Let’s say you’re touted as a top-5 pick in the draft. If you’re not particularly keen on any of the teams and purposefully answer poorly so that they won’t draft you, there are no surety teams within the same draft pick range will choose you. If, for example, three teams from the top 10 are interested in you, but you’re not interested in any of them. Your responses, in this case, could very well influence other teams in the top 10, and you could end up a bench warmer on a team packed with stars.

Your interviews post draft will also influence your involvement within the team and organization. If you don’t like the situation, you can force a trade by meeting with the General Manager. That said, interview poorly in post-match press conferences and you might tick off your teammates and fans, which will hurt your match day and social media standings. There’s always a price to pay for your decisions.

Author version: It’s okay to pick and choose which team drafts you, but try not to deter too many recruiters.

Become One With The Gym

2K Sports might want to work in a system that rewards gym practice with actual attribute increases, because the grind of a workout, which equates to new Virtual Coins (VC), can be long and tedious. The basic jist is that the more your player trains and the better they perform in said practices, the more VC you’ll earn to spend on improving their attributes.

As they say, “practice makes perfect”, and you’ll definitely generate a better understanding of how your player controls, shoots, passes and defends by spending time in the gym. It might not seem like you’re earning much, but it all adds up once your player hits a certain point of skill.

Author version: Push past the grind, practice often and use VC wisely.

Earning VC As Quickly As Possible

VC is earned throughout the NBA 2K14 experience, so you don’t need to be playing My Career to earn and spend the currency. Playing online with friends, playing exhibition games, shootouts: all of these things earn VC.

If you restrict yourself to My Career, the best advice is to practice often, accept in-game challenges wherever they’re available, and play wisely and conservatively: don’t force shots, passes or steals, and try to play to your player’s ability as best as possible. Forcing them to be a three-point shooting, high-player, stealing, blocking superstar won’t do them any good if every attempt ends in failure.

This is what separates the good players from the made: playing to their ability. It’s your player, and if you play outside of what they’re capable of, your teammates, and sometimes the team, will punish you.

Also, keep up to date with your player’s Twitter feed. Other players will often wager against (or on) you. Completing the challenge can earn you an easy 100 VC.

I often hear and see of people using their hard-earned VC on materialistic things for their player. Now that’s fine, and NBA 2K14 has, just like it’s predecessor, put a lot of awesome swag on the table for you to choose from. But prioritise: are new shoes more important than improving awareness on the court?

Once you get within the skill threshold you’re aiming for, then you can start thinking of swag. Before then, no one cares about what your player looks like. Do no-show rookies generate much attention for the type of shoe they’re wearing? Hardly.